REVIEWED by Vicki

TITLE: Short Stay

SERIES: Love Lessons #3.5

AUTHOR: Heidi Cullinan

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 272 pages

RELEASE DATE: May 24th, 2016

BLURB:

Hot messes have a hard time with happily ever after.

Baz Acker and Elijah Prince have it all. They’re engaged, and their wedding is guaranteed to be a spectacle no event will ever top. So why are they hunkered down in a quiet corner of the Acker mansion, restless and edgy while they wait out the holidays?

When Baz suggests a road trip with Walter and Kelly to Las Vegas, it sounds like an ideal escape, but it turns out Vegas only amplifies their unease. Elijah can’t slough off the self-hating his parents programmed into him, and he worries how that will affect his marriage. Baz, crippled en route because of too much time spent in the car without rest, must face the truth that his wealth and influence can’t always counteract the limits his disability will put on his—and Elijah’s—life.

With help from their friends, a wily poker player, a take-no-prisoners drag queen, and a smooth-talking casino owner, they face the truth that happiness is a state of mind, not a destination where they book a stay. What happens in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas—it will follow them all the way down the aisle.

This short novel is a continuation of a story begun in the novel Lonely Hearts in the Love Lessons series and was written at the request of Heidi’s Patreon readers.

REVIEW:

Awww…. this was just sweet!

I’ve loved this whole series, totally my favorite new adult books. I’m so happy to get to see what happened in this book that I can’t tell you about!

This book is the fourth (3.5 I guess!) in an ongoing series following the lives of a bunch of college age boys as they live through drama, angst, happiness, sex, education, and love. Each book has featured a couple, this one features Baz and Elijah from the last book. They had some issues, and finally at the end of the book had mostly sorted themselves out.

In this one, we see them back to being stressed about their relationship again. Elijah is uncomfortable being around Baz’s rich family and is overwhelmed with the upcoming New Year’s eve bash that is planned, plus the stress of Baz’s mother wanting to plan their wedding. Baz is stressed because Elijah is stressed and he doesn’t know how to make it better. In typical male fashion, neither wants to talk to the other about it! Baz comes up with the idea of a trip to Las Vegas for New Year’s eve and he gets Walter and Kelly (from book one) to go along for the ride.

Once the group gets to Vegas, good things happen! Of course bad things have to happen too, just to keep it interesting….

Heidi has done a sneaky thing with this book. She’s combined the characters from the Love Lessons world with the characters from the Special Delivery (one of her other series) world. I liked that. I read the Special Delivery books some time ago, so had a moment of thinking to work out who was who, but once I got that file in my old brain open, I liked seeing them all again! This was a great way to combine the two series, and immediately made me want to go read the Special Delivery books again.

I’m going light on the plot discussion here, partly because there isn’t a whole lot to this book, and what there is, is very special and I don’t want to give it away! This book didn’t have quite the impact as the previous books in this series, since these are existing characters and they are all relatively stable and happy, so there wasn’t the emotional drama of past books. That’s just fine, I’m not complaining by any means! I loved seeing these boys all happy and stuff…. but this book didn’t have me wrung out and in tears like the others have. There were certainly some happy tears at the end though!

It was a fun and fairly fluffy story! Unusual for Heidi, and it was what I needed, I’ve been on a lighter plot book phase this spring, and this one fit right in with what I have been needing to read. I totally enjoyed it. There was some humor, a bit of drama, just the right amount of sex, and certainly some moments that I questioned the realism of the thing that happened at the end, but I loved it all!

If you have read the other books in this series you’ll love this one, it’s mostly about Baz and Elijah, but the other characters do pop up now and then. If you haven’t read the series you could maybe get away with this one on its own, but I’m not sure it would really make sense. You have to know who these guys are. I think you’d be fine if you have read the Love Lessons books but not the Special Delivery books. The guys from that series do play a big part in this book, but not on a personal level. If that makes any sense at all!

Basically this is just another awesome book from an awesome writer! I can’t wait to read more about the Love Lessons boys, and I now need to go read the Special Delivery books again!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

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